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In electromagnetism, a dielectric (or dielectric medium) is an electrical insulator that can be polarised by an applied electric field.When a dielectric material is placed in an electric field, electric charges do not flow through the material as they do in an electrical conductor, because they have no loosely bound, or free, electrons that may drift through the material, but instead they ...
There are, however, components of electrical circuits which do not obey Ohm's law; that is, their relationship between current and voltage (their I–V curve) is nonlinear (or non-ohmic). An example is the p–n junction diode (curve at right). As seen in the figure, the current does not increase linearly with applied voltage for a diode.
The atoms of the insulator have tightly bound electrons which cannot readily move. Other materials—semiconductors and conductors—conduct electric current more easily. The property that distinguishes an insulator is its resistivity; insulators have higher resistivity than semiconductors or conductors. The most common examples are non-metals.
The electrical resistivity of a metallic conductor decreases gradually as temperature is lowered. In normal (that is, non-superconducting) conductors, such as copper or silver, this decrease is limited by impurities and other defects. Even near absolute zero, a real sample of a normal conductor shows some resistance. In a superconductor, the ...
where is the length of the conductor, measured in metres [m], A is the cross-section area of the conductor measured in square metres [m 2], σ is the electrical conductivity measured in siemens per meter (S·m −1), and ρ is the electrical resistivity (also called specific electrical resistance) of the material, measured in ohm-metres (Ω·m ...
Also called chordal or DC resistance This corresponds to the usual definition of resistance; the voltage divided by the current R s t a t i c = V I. {\displaystyle R_{\mathrm {static} }={V \over I}.} It is the slope of the line (chord) from the origin through the point on the curve. Static resistance determines the power dissipation in an electrical component. Points on the current–voltage ...
Electric currents in electrolytes are flows of electrically charged particles . For example, if an electric field is placed across a solution of Na + and Cl − (and conditions are right) the sodium ions move towards the negative electrode (cathode), while the chloride ions move towards the positive electrode (anode). Reactions take place at ...
Electrical breakdown in an electric discharge showing the ribbon-like plasma filaments from a Tesla coil.. In electronics, electrical breakdown or dielectric breakdown is a process that occurs when an electrically insulating material (a dielectric), subjected to a high enough voltage, suddenly becomes a conductor and current flows through it.